In this issue
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
Spring 2020: Questions & Answers
I model practice with my students. Although the student sees the progress she makes in the lesson with our practice plan, she doesn’t follow through at…
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
Spring 2020: Life in Music
The year 2020 marks a new decade and a complex world for many new professionals. With the arrival of spring, many experience a rising anxiety when…
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
Spring 2020: Pupil Saver: Caribbean Blue by Lynn Freeman Olson
I teach in a piano camp every summer—it is the highlight of my summer and I so look forward to working with students in this setting.…
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
Spring 2020: Book Review: Teaching Piano Pedagogy: A Guidebook for Training Effective Teachers
In the introduction to his revolutionary Teaching Piano Pedagogy: A Guidebook for Training Effective Teachers, Courtney Crappell states that the "book is not about teaching piano;…
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
Spring 2020: Editor’s Letter: Transforming Pianists Through Foundational Pedagogy
In this issue of the Piano Magazine, we explore the impact of inspirational pedagogy on pianists of all ages and abilities. Teaching and learning piano requires…
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
A Tribute to Marvin Blickenstaff and his Pedagogical Legacy
Marvin Blickenstaff has been a pillar of the North American piano community for more than five decades. His dedication to outstanding teaching, learning, and performing has been honed through his work with innumerable students and their…
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
Don’t Make Me Use My Teacher Voice: How to Get Results Without Getting Frustrated
I recently assigned a Bossa Nova to my sixteen-year-old intermediate piano student. Even though the style was new to him, he enjoyed the sound of the…
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
Slow Looking: Applications of Shari Tishman’s Observational Strategies in Piano Study
One of the most difficult aspects of teaching music and art is the ambiguous and subjective transmission of abstract concepts to the learner. Teachers often fail…
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
Accomodating Student Needs and Learning Styles
All teachers understand that students come to us with different interests, learning styles, and learning needs. We work with all of our students to achieve the…
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
Appropriate Arrangements
We are flooded today with a wide variety of musical arrangements. Through the years, I have heard Bach's Toccata in D Minor used as a video…
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
Let Them Eat Cake! Teaching Piano Using Stacked Engagement Layers
Piano playing requires the involvement and simultaneous coordination of many different parts of the brain and the mind.1 The aural center forms an image of the way…
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
Incorporating Metacognition into the Group Piano Curriculum
My interest in metacognition grew out of a rather simple and straightforward question (or at least so I thought!) that I posed to a third semester piano class for…
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
Decatastrophizing the Memory Lapse
The practice of memorizing music is relatively new. In the 1988 film by John Schlesinger, Madame Sousatzka,1 there is a haunting scene that still fills many a pianist…
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
With or Without Your Music
Around ten years ago, a detailed study was made by neurosurgeons and seasoned performers to determine the chief cause or causes of stage fright. Opinions were conclusive:…
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
The Hidden Life of the Humble Arabesque
In a letter of July 1910 to Jacques Durand, Claude Debussy announced that, as an artist, he was "accustomed to living among apparitions." Exactly what form…
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
Checking In: Mindful Body Awareness for Pianists
"You have pneumonia." It shouldn't have been a surprise. A cold reared its ugly head just as the school year started, but I had to push…
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
Thirty Years of Teaching with Technology: Was it Worth It?
Now that we have entered the third decade of the twenty- first century, I find myself looking back at the previous three decades and wondering: Did…
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
Spring 2020: New Music & Materials
Dennis Alexander's Concertino for the Young is an attractive and engaging solo with piano accompaniment that closely mimics classical concerto style. This work, accessible for a later-elementary piano…
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
Spring 2020: Recordings
Tan, a longtime friend and collaborator of George Crumb, introduces Book 1 of Crumb's first large-scale work since his monumental Makrokosmos, composed forty years ago. Based…
Spring 2020; Vol. 12, No. 1
Spring 2020: Keyboard Kids
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